


Nothing Fairer in the Universe

by Ancalime1



Series: Star Systems [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Outer Space, Sleepy Cuddles, bc that's my brand c:, spacesuit cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22748050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ancalime1/pseuds/Ancalime1
Summary: A story about corvuss' and my characters, Beau and Elliot. Lots of talking about Feelings and Spacesuit Cuddles <3
Relationships: Beau/Elliot Sparrow
Series: Star Systems [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635646
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Nothing Fairer in the Universe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [corvuss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvuss/gifts).



> A little while ago, my boyfriend and I created two characters: Dr. Elliot Sparrow, a neuroscientist turned astronaut, and Beau, an alien who meets him and saves him from his Evil Family. They're described in more detail [here](https://dromaeocore.tumblr.com/post/190218684028/sorry-if-this-seems-random-but-are-u-planning-on), but for now, this is just a short little piece on them working through their Trauma and having a good Snuggle out in space. Enjoy!!

He’d been told that spacesuits were some of the most uncomfortable things he’d ever had to wear—that donning them was like donning three pairs of snowsuits all at once, and then inflating them so that they ballooned into a giant, person-shaped marshmallow. 

Weirdly enough, he didn’t mind the sound of that. 

They were right, as it turned out, about its likeness to inflated snowsuits. The bulky mass didn’t permit much in the way of movement, especially when it was pressurized. But being inside of it was probably the most comfortable Elliot had felt in a long time. He didn’t much care about its limited mobility—or at least, not when he was on his own. It was temperature-controlled so as to keep cool on the inside, and its thick puffiness lent a deep sense of comfort and security he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was like being encased in a heavy, protective bubble, safe from the terrors surrounding him.

He hadn’t had the courage to don one again since his escape with Beau, though. The accident—the thing that  _ should  _ have killed him—still weighed on his mind. He shouldn’t be here. He  _ wouldn’t  _ be here, if not for the suits in question. And now Beau wanted to go on a spacewalk with him.

“I… can’t,” he said simply, when Beau had asked him. He bit his lip and frowned, silently wishing for the alien to stop staring at him with those puppy dog eyes of his, to stop prying into his emotions. “S—something happened,” he explained, rummaging through a thorn bush just to find words. “Well… you know. Of course you know. I only survived because of my suit, and—” he halted, drawing in a shuddering breath. “I’m afraid that if I put it on, it’ll all come back.”

To his surprise, Beau nodded. “I see,” he said, his voice quiet. He shook his head, his purple mane billowing out into fluffy curls about his face. “I-it’s okay. I can go on my own. Or I can not go at all if that’d make you feel safer—”

“No,” Elliot gasped, in a more panicked voice than he intended. “No, I… I don’t mind…” he trailed off with a sigh, clapping a hand to his brow. “Damn it.”

Beau tilted his head at this, a faint trace of alarm in his face. “Sorry?”

Another sigh. “I mean—I’ll go,” muttered Elliot, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his coat. “I just might need a little extra time to—”

“ _ Yes! _ ” shrieked Beau, punching the air in triumph. “Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-ye—”

“Okay,” cut in Elliot, attempting (but failing) to stifle a grin. “Uh… here. I can help get you all suited up, if you like. It’s typically a two-person job.”

At this, Beau clapped, the tiniest tinge of violet coloring his cheeks. “Yes!” he repeated, then snatched up Elliot’s hand and swung it once, twice. “ _ Show me. _ ”

Elliot’s mouth twitched into a smile, the fluffy four-fingered hand in his different, but not unwelcome. Clutching it as if he might lose him, he led Beau over to the storage bay, to where they had left the suits they had stolen. He picked one up and held it out in front of Beau. “Ready?”

Beau didn’t even answer, and instead unzipped the back and hopped right in. The suit crinkled and bunched around him as he wiggled into it, pulling it about himself so that it hugged every inch of his frame. When he was done, he drew himself up to his full height and grinned. “How do I look?”

Elliot’s heart sank.  _ Amazing _ , he held himself back from saying, his eyes hovering over the endearing bulkiness of his suited friend. He couldn’t describe it, but somehow looked… safe. Comfortable. Like how  _ he _ used to feel inside the suits.

He shook his head and dismissed the thought. “Depressurized,” he said in a flat voice. He patted Beau on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you some oxygen in there. Where’s your helmet?”

Beau raised an eyebrow, then poked Elliot hard in the chest. “Nuh-uh,” he said, wagging his finger, his face stretching into a toothy grin. “I put on my suit. Now it’s your turn!”

Elliot stared at him blankly, then heaved an exasperated sigh.  _ Damn it. _ Looks like he wasn’t getting out of this one after all.

“Okay,” he said in a quiet voice, somewhat self-conscious now of Beau seeing  _ him  _ in a suit. Crewmembers were one thing. But a person he cared about? Someone he actually admired? He killed the thought immediately and reached for the other suit. “Hold it out for me, will you?” he said, unzipping it and offering it to Beau.

Beau gave him a gleeful nod, then helped him step into the suit. He grunted as he briefly lost balance, almost falling flat onto Beau before steadying himself again. He shook his head and wiggled his way into the suit, his shoulders relaxing slightly as the soft fabric pulled around him. He’d forgotten how much he enjoyed this, to be honest, but he wasn’t going to admit that with Beau’s toothy grin not five inches away from his face. 

“We match!” said Beau, clapping his hands together. He looked Elliot up and down, and for a brief second, Elliot thought he saw him glow a soft sea-green instead of his usual purple. But when he blinked, Beau was still grinning and purpley as ever. “You look fantastic, Dr. Sparrow.” 

Elliot flushed at this, immediately dropping his gaze and blinking away the probable hallucination. “Uhhh… thanks,” he said, the self-consciousness plummeting down on him again in one fell swoop. “Here. Uh. Let’s get pressurized, okay? No point in a spacesuit if there’s no oxygen in it.” 

“Yes,” agreed Beau, nodding sagely. “Yes, let’s!”

Beau was a quick study. He knew just what tubes connected to each valve, and watched with childlike fascination as the suit expanded around him, swelling with oxygen. Elliot’s mouth twitched in amusement, before locking eyes with Beau and watching befuddled as the alien pointed at his suit excitedly and mouthed a string of words from inside his fishbowl helmet. 

“Erm, you know your headset works, right?” Elliot ventured, tapping at the glass of his own helmet just in case. 

“Oh!” Came Beau’s crackly reply. He paused and grinned at himself, marveling at his own voice inside the helmet. He then gave his suit an experimental pat and squeeze, and his grin became even wider. “It’s so big and fat!” He squealed, beaming at Elliot with sparkling amber eyes. “Look at me! I am  _ just like  _ a human.”

At this, Elliot found he couldn’t suppress a smile. “Uh, yeah,” he said. “Just like a human. A fluffy, purple human. You fit right in with those ears of yours.”

Beau hesitated, then gave his ears an experimental twitch. “It is a bit hard to move them inside of here,” he admitted. 

“Yeah. Sorry about that. Chin up though, we’re almost done here.”

He sighed after saying this, exhaling through his nostrils and trying desperately to relax inside his suit as it expanded around him. He tried to focus on that rather than the memories that gnawed at him, of being hurled forward through space like a limp ragdoll, with nothing but the mercy of his suit keeping him from joining his dead crewmates. 

_ Breathe. Breathe. _

The suits were finally pressurized. Elliot made to get up and show Beau to the airlock, but Beau shot up before him, lacing his now-inflated gloves between Elliot’s and beaming at him with the widest smile. 

“We’re ready!” He said, swinging Elliot’s arm back and forth, his eyes flickering warm shades of amber. “We’re going out into space!”

Elliot’s face flushed, and he found himself chuckling in spite of his best efforts. “Yes we are,” he said, gripping Beau’s hand. He paused, drinking in the moment, willing away bad memories with the delighted feeling that bubbled in his chest. He was safe, safe inside his suit, going out to his favorite place with his favorite person.

He squeezed Beau’s hand.  _ It’s gonna be okay. _

They filed into the airlock, waiting breathlessly for the chamber to depressurize and dump them out into space. His chest felt tight all of a sudden, his lungs seeming to fill with cement instead of air. He found it ironic, this—a tank of oxygen strapped to him, and he was struggling to breathe, He exhaled shakily as the first seal hissed open, then the next… and then they were drawn out into space, their tethers spindling out behind them like spiders hanging by strings.

He heard his breath catch in his helmet as the weightlessness snatched him, seeping into his limbs and chasing away gravity’s anchor. He forced himself to relax as he tumbled out into the black, willing his shoulders to soften and his heart to stop trying to worm its way out of his chest. He was safe with Beau, not floundering amidst the wreckage of his ship and the frozen corpses of his crewmates. He was safe, he was safe, he was—

The squeeze of Beau’s hand brought him back, stopping him from spiraling. The alien was beaming, unaware of Elliot’s turmoils and dumbstruck with wonder. Stars danced in his amber eyes like crystalline snowflakes, and the sight was so beautiful that Elliot nearly choked in surprise. 

He was an astronaut. He had walked amongst hundreds of starscapes, but they never lost their wonder on him. Still, as stunning as this particular one was—the space around them awash with rainbow flecks of space dust and baby stars—nothing compared to the sight beside him. The brightest stars couldn’t compete with the way Beau’s eyes shone, the way they sparkled with delight and awe as they did now. There was nothing fairer in the universe, Elliot thought, than the being holding his hand.

“Thank you,” came Beau’s soft voice over the comms, though it registered just above a whisper. His ears drooped slightly, and the twinkle in his eyes softened into a look of sudden somberness. He squeezed Elliot’s hand again, and inhaled shakily. “When I… before I ended up in re-education… I used to love spacewalking,” he forced out, biting his lip. A small smile tugged at his lips. “I—I loved to fly around outside the ship and push my friends around while we floated. They’d always try to get me back, but… they could never catch me.” The smile fell away from his face again, and his grip on Elliot’s hand lessened. “The suits had bioscanners, though. They read your heartbeat, your breathing patterns… even your brainwaves..”

Elliot furrowed his brow. “Brainwaves? What for?”

“My people are empaths,” Beau explained, as if it were obvious. “We thrive on each other’s energy. And if someone is feeling the wrong way, or thinking the wrong things, we…” he trailed off, his mouth becoming a thin line. “But I liked that. It made me feel safe, being monitored. I liked knowing that I was being watched.” 

“I can’t even begin to imagine,” admitted Elliot, shaking his head. “You know, even out here in deep space I feel like I’m being watched. If I could be rid of the damn feeling, I would.”

Beau sighed. “I know,” he said sadly. “Obviously I don’t like the feeling myself anymore. Or at least, most of me doesn’t.” He shuddered. “It’s… it’s scary. Being monitored your whole life and being told it’s for your own good… and then actually  _ believing  _ it. As if doing anything remotely out of line would make you a monster.” 

They said nothing after this, their fingers still laced together as they bobbed in gentle weightlessness.  _ Two monsters adrift in the universe, _ Elliot thought, his eyes scrolling over the feathery red nebula that stretched into the distance, a spiderweb of cosmic dust flickering with tiny stars. 

Maybe that’s all they were, then—monsters. Freaks, pariahs, shunned by their own kind. Maybe that’s all they were meant to be, by some unkind design of the universe. But at least they weren’t  _ alone _ .

Elliot sighed, then carefully maneuvered himself so that he was facing Beau once more. “Y’Know… back on earth, I thought I was a monster,” he began. “I—I think I still am, to some degree. Hell, sometimes, I think I’m evil—a genuine evil, mind you, like I belong in the Seven Circles or something. And this, ah… this  _ power _ has done little to dissolve that delusion.” He gave a hard swallow, pausing a moment to collect his thoughts. “We do what we can with what we’ve got, though,” he said, clearing his throat. “Some part of me thinks I’m evil? Fine. That won’t stop me from trying to do the right thing anyways.” He paused again to look at Beau, to meet him straight in the eyes. “So what if we’re monsters, eh? We’ve got ourselves, and we’ve got each other. Let’s make the most of it, shall we?”

His words hung there in the quiet, not unlike the stars surrounding them. Elliot sucked in a deep breath—he wondered if he had said too much, if he had pushed the wrong button. But if he had, Beau gave no indication of it. He merely floated alongside Elliot as if in a trance, eyes locked onto the swirling nebula before them.

Suddenly, Beau grabbed him and pulled him close, so close that their helmets bashed together with a resounding _clunk_. Elliot stifled a yelp as he was pulled into a big embrace, a pair of suit-encased arms locking around his back and trailing down to his waist. Surprised as he was by the action though, he found himself relaxing into the hug, his own arms finding their way around Beau’s padded waist. Strange, he found himself thinking—he hadn’t been this relaxed inside a suit since… well. Since before the accident.

“Thank you,” came Beau’s soft voice over the comms. “Thank you for… everything you said.” He sniffled, the threat of tears crackling into the receiver. “I’m really lucky I have you.”

Elliot laughed, then began to gently rub the alien’s back, the puffy suit compressing beneath his touch. “I’m lucky to have you too, you know. Folks like us have got to stick together.”

Beau chuckled, but whether it was because he agreed or because Elliot had found a ticklish spot was beyond him. “I suppose so,” he said, squeezing Elliot tighter. “I’m glad we have each other, then.”

Elliot had no idea how long they stayed like this, tucked within each other and drifting silently into the night. When their oxygen reserves finally began to wane however, he decided to unclasp himself from Beau, and carefully ushered him back into ship. 

Their boots hit the ground with a  _ thud,  _ and as soon as the airlock chamber pressurized, their helmets were off. They grinned at each other, the sweetness of the experience too precious for words, transmittable only through fond eyes.  _ Kiss him,  _ urged a voice inside Elliot’s head—not an unkind voice, for once, but nonetheless impulsive. He shuddered at the suggestion, knowing that kissing Beau was almost too tempting to pass up. Yet still he  _ yearned _ .

He found his feet taking steps that he hadn’t intended on taking, carrying himself over to Beau with steady determination. He found his hands gently reaching for Beau’s waist, and watched as the alien’s mouth twitched into a knowing smile, a  _ relieved  _ smile. His eyes fluttered closed as Elliot began to trace deep circles into his suit, the plump fabric squeezing and squishing with delightful friction beneath his fingers. He gasped as Beau made to do the same, his hands pressing into the cushion of Elliot’s suit and gently stroking him back and forth. 

“Oh,” murmured Elliot in a soft voice. He leaned into the motion, causing their noses to brush and Beau to chuckle. “Oh. Uh. Geez that feels good.” 

His eyes slowly drooped closed as Beau’s suit gave below him, pressing into his own and sending a small ticklish feeling across his skin. He shuddered with delight as their padded hips pressed against each other, cushioned and warm, and he had to actively resist falling into Beau as they staggered towards the wall. 

They immediately collapsed into a big, marshmallow-y heap on the floor. Beau giggled, cuddling up into the space between Elliot’s arm and his chest and hugging his torso with big puffy arms. “You’re right,” he said, grinning toothily up at Elliot, once again glowing that elusive sea-green. “This  _ does  _ feel good.”

Elliot smiled.  _ Green for love,  _ he thought, closing an arm over Beau’s waist and tugging him closer, closer. Not that he was gonna bring that up now. Not so soon after… well, whatever this was.

Their faces were close, so close that their noses brushed, and he could feel Beau’s breath on his cheeks. The voice urging in his mind became more and more insistent, to kiss him, that the next chance he got might not be so obvious. His breathing became shaky, semi-panicked—when was the last time he had ever kissed anybody?  _ God  _ it had been so long, he wasn’t even sure how it worked anymore. And what if Beau’s people didn’t kiss? How the hell would he react if he—

He gasped as a pair of lips closed on his own, then quickly retreated as quick as they’d come. Beau pulled away and stared at him, his eyes wide with both horror and wonder. “I… I don’t know why I did that,” he admitted, nervously blinking up at Elliot as if he’d crossed a terrible boundary. “I—”

He was immediately cut off by Elliot’s own mouth crashing into his. Beau squealed with delight as Elliot sucked at his lips, his hips kneading into Beau’s own like the crashing of waves against stone. And when Elliot receded, Beau dove in for more, twining his squishy legs round Elliot’s and wiggling them with wonderful friction. 

They broke away with hearts racing, laughing at how silly they must have looked, fiercely cuddling in spacesuits on the floor of the airlock. Silly as it was, though, Elliot knew deep in his heart that they were safe, that even his horrible powers couldn’t penetrate the thick insulation of the suits. He and Beau were  _ safe,  _ and that was all that mattered. 

And the suits were damn comfy, too. That also mattered, he supposed.

He wiggled a little closer to Beau, gently brushing his lips against the alien’s forehead and pressing a gentle kiss between tufts of lavender hair. “I don’t mean to alarm you,” he murmured in a low voice, his lips twisting into a smile. “But, well, I think I may be falling in love.”

Beau giggled, then quickly shook his head and gave Elliot a Very Serious Look. “Floating,” he said. “You can’t fall in space, I don’t think. You gotta float.”

“Hm. Well,  _ floating  _ in love it is, then.” He yawned, his eyes drooping closed in a sweet sleepiness. “I’m floating in love with you, Beau.”

Another giggle, more shy this time. And when Elliot opened his eyes again, Beau was pulsing that soft green.

“I think that makes both of us,” he whispered, touching his forehead to Elliot’s. “I love you too, Elliot. I’m glad to be traveling the stars with you.”

Elliot smiled, and the last thing he remembered before falling into the depths of sleep was Beau’s soft glow, and eyelids fluttering onto sea-green cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments are so appreciated. And if you'd like to know more about our ocs, give us an ask or two at either @dromaeocore or @jonathan-systems on tumblr. Thanks!!


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